Yes, you probably should order one. Isolators can be very fun to use, and if well designed, do enhance sound, and at $895.00 is priced right!

Mine will be in my hands this week, probably tomorrow, or Wedensday, and 5 minutes after that, IN MY SYSTEM, and I will run it, see what its all about.

And, later in that evening, full report to follow!

Mario took the time to figure out WHAT is the sound the unit needs to have, and is what the market wants, works properly, and priced within affordable reach!

+1 for MarioG!

Scott, it sounds to me like you have already made up your mind about this unit without evening touching it/ hearing it. Is this so? What if you don't like what hear seeing as a particular sound can be so subjective to the listener? Would you let us know in either case? I'm anxious/ curious about this unit as well!

Scott, it sounds to me like you have already made up your mind about this unit without evening touching it/ hearing it. Is this so? What if you don't like what hear seeing as a particular sound can be so subjective to the listener? Would you let us know in either case? I'm anxious/ curious about this unit as well!

Actually, I don't have an opinion or my mind made up on its sonic character as of yet. What you HEAR in my words is ANTICIPATION! I love trying things.

Sound character, well, clean, is one thing, and smooth, too.

Electrically, unity gain should be with the pots at 12 O' clock, not 2 O'clock position. Mario assured me his unit functions this way.

Physical feel? Mario used a good Alps pot, with a slightly tighter feel to turn, as opposed to a super loose feeling pot, this is a matter of personal preference, and I prefer a slightly torquier feeling to my pots. I just didn't care for another units really loose feeling potentiometers!

Features of unit! The unit is a 3 band isolator, with it's turnover frequencies well thought out and chosen for proper frequency manipulation and sound. The unit does not have additional features like being able to run a CD player into it, and step down CD signal to phono level to run into a phono input, among a few other features that are, IMHO, unneccesary, and allowed Mario to concentrate on building the unit to do ONE thing, but do that ONE thing well. AND, this can be a BIG and, also contributes much to keeping the units cost in a price range that is within reach of many, yet still be well designed, well made, and offer a high quality sound!

Keeping the cost within affordable reach most definitely IS a priority, and choosing to NOT load this unit with additional circuits, components, and excessive features allowed mario to make a good unit, and keep costs in the affordable range. As compared to many feature laden units, especially DSP speaker pocessors that are Jack Of ALL Trades, Master Of None type units, with EQ, xover, limiter, compressor, time delay, phase alignment, multi filterslope/type gear being offered today. And yet, many still choose to use dedicated SEPARATE EQ,s compressors, and xovers, EACH unit being GOOD at its job. I mean, convenience is great, but you just can't pack the quality of ten different types of units into a 1 rackspace piece of electronics, and have each BE THE BEST at their individual job function, as you get with dedicated separate units!

The GSA Isolator is exactly what it is, an ISOLATOR not a xover, a house EQ, delay, etc.

As an end user, I want ONE unit, not 6 units, each CD deck into individual units, you see my point?

Actually, I don't have an opinion or my mind made up on its sonic character as of yet. What you HEAR in my words is ANTICIPATION! I love trying things.

Sound character, well, clean, is one thing, and smooth, too.

Electrically, unity gain should be with the pots at 12 O' clock, not 2 O'clock position. Mario assured me his unit functions this way.

Physical feel? Mario used a good Alps pot, with a slightly tighter feel to turn, as opposed to a super loose feeling pot, this is a matter of personal preference, and I prefer a slightly torquier feeling to my pots. I just didn't care for another units really loose feeling potentiometers!

Features of unit! The unit is a 3 band isolator, with it's turnover frequencies well thought out and chosen for proper frequency manipulation and sound. The unit does not have additional features like being able to run a CD player into it, and step down CD signal to phono level to run into a phono input, among a few other features that are, IMHO, unneccesary, and allowed Mario to concentrate on building the unit to do ONE thing, but do that ONE thing well. AND, this can be a BIG and, also contributes much to keeping the units cost in a price range that is within reach of many, yet still be well designed, well made, and offer a high quality sound!

Keeping the cost within affordable reach most definitely IS a priority, and choosing to NOT load this unit with additional circuits, components, and excessive features allowed mario to make a good unit, and keep costs in the affordable range. As compared to many feature laden units, especially DSP speaker pocessors that are Jack Of ALL Trades, Master Of None type units, with EQ, xover, limiter, compressor, time delay, phase alignment, multi filterslope/type gear being offered today. And yet, many still choose to use dedicated SEPARATE EQ,s compressors, and xovers, EACH unit being GOOD at its job. I mean, convenience is great, but you just can't pack the quality of ten different types of units into a 1 rackspace piece of electronics, and have each BE THE BEST at their individual job function, as you get with dedicated separate units!

The GSA Isolator is exactly what it is, an ISOLATOR not a xover, a house EQ, delay, etc.

As an end user, I want ONE unit, not 6 units, each CD deck into individual units, you see my point?

So, I take it now that you are NOT as big a fan of the Thrive isolator as you were when it came out and you got yours.

I DON'T want this to be a Thrive -vs- Mario thread, that was not the intention.

IT IS the intention to try a new piece, and see how it is. IF IT IS GOOD, THEN IT'S GOOD!

5 years ago, I DID NOT like switching power supply amplifiers, either! But, the technology has evolved considerably since 5 years ago, and today I DO like the switching PSU amps available!

I also gave up vinyl, and today use Serato and a laptop to play music, again, times, technology, and entire formats changed, so I did too!

Both Mercedes and BMW make well engineered, and well made cars, BUT, both handle and feel differently from each other. IS IT possible to LIKE both, for different reasons?

Or how about crossing formats, playing BOTH CD and vinyl and you find that when your system is optimized for vinyl, CD doesn't sound right, and now we have the Serato/Laptop revolution, and thus, again, is different from either vinyl or CD, and requires a different voicing and setup for optimum results, and the end user makes a choice, to optimize for the format they use the most, and what's the most current format!

Times changed, formats changed, technology changed, and so, I CHANGED TOO! and as i had posted in another thread, what we/I were talking about 5 years ago, may or may not still be credible information pertain ing to HOW THINGS ARE DONE, and THE REQUIREMENTS for todays formats and music!

BTW, here is YET another HUGE change I made, I went back to more traditional crossovers, and do not use the RLA any longer. There is something gained, and we knew this 20 years ago, too, but, as much as the RLA had a certain sound with vinyl of the period, but, there was always a slight bit higher fidelity to be obtained going directly into the full range crossover, as opposed to being fed from the RLA,s full out.

Things I like, liked, and find I might like better now are all relevant to the time period I was doing these things. Music changed, audio technology changed, and will continue to do so, and things I like and things I use change to best suit what it is I'm doing at THIS point in time!

Scott, are you saying unity on your Thrive
was not at 12:00 on the pots? In otherwords, if you set your
pots to 12:00, and you switch the loop on your Rane
in and out, did you have a drop in volume?

Is that an accepted way to determine Unity Gain on a unit?

i wonder this sometimes...
normally i bring a six pack and the gear i want looked at to
a friend who has a scope, and I let him tell me what's what,
after i explain what i think is supposed to be
going on with a given piece of gear...

i wonder this sometimes...
normally i bring a six pack and the gear i want looked at to
a friend who has a scope, and I let him tell me what's what,
after i explain what i think is supposed to be
going on with a given piece of gear...

I am going off what I was told, unity on that unit is supposed to be with pots at 12:00. I thought I was having an issue with my unit because I noticed a drop in gain with pots at 12:00. When Scott commented about unity being at 12 rather then 2 I thought maybee I'm not the only one who had that gain issue.

Its not a huge deal, I have the unit in my home set up and my system is set so that the volume is fine. I am not in the habbit of switching the loop in and out when I play so it doesn't really affect me. Its just a slight annoyance. I still love the unit, technically speaking it really shouldn't have that issue though.

I'm not making this into a Thrive-vs-Mario thread. I made a statement.

I'll also state that today I no longer use Altec woofers. And although I LOVED Altec, they are no longer in business today, and even if they were, what my 421-8LF woofers were designed to do, and handle was COMPLETELY different than the demands todays music puts on speakers. For one thing, the old HIGH COMPLIANCE suspensions cannot tolerate the extended and considerably hotter LF present in todays recordings. Physically, they were just never designed to have to deal with what speakers have to deal with playing modern recordings.

Add to which, Altec is no longer, and the parts available for Altec today, are not, IMO, exactly what Altec made 30 years ago.

My TAD 15,s outperform the Altecs, and take MUCH more power, and sound physically better with todays music, NO AUDIBLE STRESS!

Music also contains alot more HF and VHF information, and years ago, with analog recordings rolled off top end, and lowwr amounts of VHF, amps with .75v input sensitivity worked VERY WELL. And today, I ujse a slghtly higher powered amp, with a 1.2v input sensitivty on my tweeters, and things balanced out properly. With amps that have a .75v input sensitivity, its just too fast, with todays music, and the amp with higher power, and a slightly harder to drive input sensitivity cleaned up my highs TREMEDOUSLY! Now, I know if I went back to playing records, once again, things change. But, I play files now, and digital music is what I optimized my system for.

Same thing with my 2in compression drivers, bigger amp, harder to drive input sensitivity, = more dynamic, and cleaner, and clearer sound. Again, digital music is NOT the same as analog recordings were!

THIS is VOICING and SETUP. And what worked oh so well with vinyl simply doesn't work the same for todays music!

FWIW, I loved the early and mid 70,s Cadillac Coupe De Ville, a ROLLING LIVING ROOM! But, if you had one now, with it's BIG BLOCK, high compression ratio engine, and dont modify it to operate correctly with todays lead free gasolines, don't cry about your car don't run right!

Now, let me say this again, WHAT I AM DOING NOW IS DIFFERENT FROM WHAT I USED TO DO! IT HAS TO BE for my music to sound proper. And isnt a matter of liking this over that, EVERYTHUING changed, and I HAD TO CHANGE AS WELL.

Anyway, getting back on topic, IF Marios GSA Isolator is GOOD, then ITS GOOD, to be judged for HOW IT SOUNDS! And one more thing, YOUR NOT having the additional features, and associated circuitry and parts DOES KEEP THE COST DOWN! But, seriously, if it sounds good, and YOU want one, and didn't plan on owning ten Isolators in the 1st place, HEY this IS your gain, not a loss!

So, I take it now that you are NOT as big a fan of the Thrive isolator as you were when it came out and you got yours.

I believe that YOU think you made credible and valid statements. I never said the GSA Iso was a good or bad unit. The issue with the price of this unit and that of other units was brought up by....YOU! The issue of having one unit instead of six units was brought up by....YOU! Although this was not your sentiments that long ago. So, again I say YOU think you made credible and valid statements!